Stena Bulk Makes $10 Million Gain From Efficient Shipping Strategy

Image: Stena Bulk

By Catherine McMillan,

Whilst Maersk has famously stated that its efficiency measures were the vital component that have made the difference between profit and loss, other companies in the sector are starting to highlight the savings that they too have implemented.

In particular, Stena Bulk has stated that it has saved SEK 65 million (USD $10 million) through the deployment of efficiency-enhancing measures. A tanker shipping company with a fleet of around 100 tankers, Stena Bulk is part of the Stena Sphere, a multinational with more than 20,000 employees and total 2012 revenue of SEK 60 billion.

At the beginning of 2013, Stena Bulk implemented an energy efficiency strategy that expanded the traditional scope of just reduced bunker fuel consumption to also consider efficiency on a commercial and operational level.

“Real savings can be made when owners and operators expand their understanding of ship efficiency to include previously overlooked aspects of the ship’s operations; now that the industry has on the whole successfully leveraged more traditional areas of ship efficiency – such as bulbous bows, hull coatings, propellers and such like – the next frontier of efficiency is expanding that scope for truly integrated, efficient vessels,” Alison Jarabo, Director at Fathom Shipping, commented.

Stena Bulk estimates that this new approach will reduce sulphur oxide emissions by around 1,400 metric tonnes in 2013. Part of the strategy includes having vessels operating at optimum speed, performance monitoring and increased awareness of efficiency measures by the crew on board.